Micron in Talks Regarding Consolidation of Taiwanese Memory Industry

Micron Technology has entered the battle for the consolidated Taiwanese maker of dynamic random access memory, which is now called Taiwan Memory by several media resources. The company will have to offer the government and local memory makers the best terms to win the deal.

Micron on Monday confirmed that it had submitted proposal to Taiwan government offering funds and intellectual property in return for being the leader in the DRAM makers consolidation plan. Micron is willing to build a research and development center in Taiwan, which, while working in collaboration with Micron’s own R&D facility in Boise, Idaho, will design fabrication processes for Taiwan Memory conglomerate. Naturally, Micron will get either a share, or the whole output of the consolidate memory maker.

Elpida Memory, the world’s third largest DRAM supplier after Samsung and Hynix, was expected to sign the deal with the Taiwanese government and integrate its operations with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., ProMOS Technologies as well as Rexchip Electronics Corp. According to the reports, Powerchip and ProMOS were expected to consolidate under Rexchip, which would become a subsidiary of Elpida by late March, 2009. However, nothing have been signed despite the media reports.

According to some reports, Micron may bring $2 billion funding for Taiwan Memory, meanwhile, Elpida’s alliance could be eligible for Taiwanese public funds worth about ¥100 billion ($1.056 billion).

Taiwanese government is working to consolidate the country’s struggling DRAM industry in order to create a large DRAM manufacturer that would either be a part of a foreign DRAM maker or would collaborate very closely with it. Elpida and Micron are among the companies who want to consolidate Taiwan’s DRAM industry under itself.